As an avowed dinosaur, I have greeted the sudden rise of Zoom and live-streaming in 2020 with apprehension. You see, I’m not great with change.
However, I accepted that there’s not much I can do about techy developments, so I decided to make the best of it. Rather to my surprise, I found myself getting used to Zoom. I grudgingly admit that it’s not as bad as all that!
Moreover, I am enabled to pursue my work, even if not quite in the way I would have chosen. That applies both to networking events and marketing. Zoom breakout rooms allow private conversations with other businesses. And it’s always good to be able to see who you are talking to.
Conversations with (potential or actual) clients are better for me face-to-face, but I can still get a feel for their personalities and character online. The experience is probably mutual.
A few of my recent funerals have been live-streamed. As the celebrant, I still address most of my remarks and readings to the (few people) that are with me in the chapel. However, I am careful to glance up at the camera and thereby include onlookers as best I can. I always point out that they are contributing to the event and thank them for their time and trouble.
I’ve also been parked next to a couple in their car, with the windows down, who were watching a funeral through live-streaming. They didn’t appear to feel very involved at first, although they clearly perked up at the eulogy.
My feeling is that it may lack the inclusivity and atmosphere of a regular funeral, but a live-streamed service is a very decent substitute.
A number of weddings are still taking place. Of course, numbers are strictly limited, but Zoom comes into its own here. It also enables people (for example, in far-off countries, or who are unwell) to be part of a celebration they would otherwise have missed. So it can be an absolute bonus.
Well, although I still have a long way to go, I am one dinosaur who has been ever so slightly converted to technology! Where will it end?!